Innocent Sacrifice
by Sonnenkoenigen
Summary: Howard Link in search of Allen Walker. Another outtake from The Book of Vices and Virtues. Hints of LinkXTewaku


**Author's notes**

Standard disclaimers: I do not own DGM. I'm just an addict.

Any time a work is translated, there are sacrifices. I don't know why the decision was made to not translate the word "akuma", but in doing so, a lot of potential wordplay was lost. In order to regain that, I chose to translate "akuma" as Demon, capitalizing it to distinguish it from the kind of demon not made by the Earl. In doing so, I undoubtedly lost whatever was gained in not translating that word, but that's how translation goes. You win some; you lose some.

Spoiler warning: This story revolves around Chapter 213 of the manga, so if you haven't read it, confusion is a serious risk, as are spoilers.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

**Innocent Sacrifice**

It's as if he's playing the hot/cold game they used to play as children, with that throbbing whisper in his chest to guide him: "Warm. Warm. Colder now. Cold. Warm again. Warmer. Warmer." He's grateful for it, because his target is moving so fast that sometimes the signal grows fainter rather than stronger, and without it he would have very few leads. He knows his quarry well enough to know that if that person wants to disappear, he will, even from someone who knows him as well as Howard Link.

When Link was assigned to Allen Walker, he read the dossier through several times. He's not a man to go off half-cocked and he knew how crucial this surveillance was. Even so, he was unprepared for the smiling child whose eyes lit up at the sight of a pumpkin pie. Was Walker really that naive? Link had figured it was worth a try, considering they were going to be each other's shadow for the foreseeable future and Walker's appetite was legendary. He didn't expect a reaction quite that enthusiastic.

He didn't realize until much later that the pie had no effect whatsoever, except possibly to spend two minutes fueling the bottomless pit that was a sixteen-year-old boy with a parasitic Innocence. Link thought he ate a lot. He had no idea what eating a lot meant until he spent time in the cafeteria with Walker. It might be possible to buy him with food, but it would take a lot more food than Link was willing to make.

Link knows that Allen Walker isn't the boy's real name. Probably the boy himself doesn't know what his name is, but whoever he is, he didn't exist as far as the records are concerned until he climbed to the front gate at Headquarters. What little they know about his life before that moment that the boy himself didn't tell them is compiled from Komui's report of Timcanpy's video recordings and a few hints from Cross, none of which tell them a thing about where that kid came from, who his family was, or what name he was given at birth. Most of Allen Walker's dossier relies on Allen Walker's memory, and Link knows how unreliable memory can be.

Still, people cling to their memories.

One of Link's most vivid is of a little girl and her brother huddled by the altar in the church, pretending to pray but really warming their hands at the candles. Link knelt beside them, drawn by the heat, and the girl looked up at him with wide, uncertain eyes. Her brother gave Link a sharper look, but Link only nodded and turned back to the candles lit for the dead, praying that he wouldn't join them. Midwinter nights cut like broken glass.

As the sun went down, the deacon ordered them outside, and they obeyed without argument, wanting to be able to come back the next day. As soon as the man closed the front door, they ran around to the back door and huddled in the shelter of the steps, exchanging words then, but only their names. The fact that Link was out there with them instead of someplace with four walls and a bed was all the explaining he needed to do.

They, too, didn't have to explain. Brother and sister might die tonight, but at least they would die together.

Link and Madarao opened their too-big overcoats, pulling Tewaku in between them and tucking her underneath the folds of heavy wool, wrapping their arms around her. Link's legs were already shaking with cold, and he gripped the sleeves of his coat so they covered his threadbare gloves. The little girl squirmed, trying to get comfortable, and he pressed closer as she settled, not wanting to expose any part of her to the biting darkness. She had become precious to him, and he thought that if she survived the night, his own survival might be worth something. Madarao pulled Link's head onto his arm before pulling off his scarf and arranging it so that it covered both Link's neck and his own, and lightly covered Tewaku's face.

Tewaku whimpered, from cold or hunger Link didn't know. It could have been both. Madarao began to sing, his young voice cracking on the old lullaby, and Link's lips pressed against the top of Tewaku's hat, breathing a silent, warming prayer as the night wind whistled, sending the first flakes of the oncoming blizzard dancing among the gravestones.

Link woke the next morning covered in sparkling snow, his cheeks stiff and his feet numb in his boots, grateful for the soft, steady movement of the little girl's body against his and the slower rise and fall of her brother's chest. They were alive. The arm Tewaku lay on had fallen asleep, but he didn't want to move it, so he did his best to ignore the persistent tingling, instead trying to move his toes, hoping to get circulation back into them before he lost them. Tewaku murmured, her small body stirring against Link's as she tried to stretch, waking her brother as she did, and the three of them sat up, brushing the snow away, buttoning their overcoats, the two boys discussing the best place to beg for breakfast as Tewaku smiled at Link for the first time.

_Don't leave Tewaku alone!_

No matter how fast he moves, Link cannot escape the sound of her pleading. Even sleep gives him no peace, but he doesn't deserve peace. He was the one who delivered the bits of Demon egg. He was the one who bound Allen Walker before Tocusa could pull himself together. He followed orders, as he always did.

Once, he treasured the praise. Now, it's like ashes in his ears.

He once believed that loyalty was the highest virtue a man could achieve, and he prided himself on his aspiration. He worked hard, studied hard, and fulfilled every assignment beyond expectations. Link had seen Crow training break several men, but he refused to bend. No matter what he was asked to do, he did it, and he did it well.

He was also loyal to Tewaku. Until she gave him a word, one way or the other, he didn't look at anyone else, because if she ever gave him a yes, he wanted to be worthy of her. Above all, he wants her to have a good man.

He will give her up to another man, if that's where her heart truly lies, but he will never give her up to the Earl. Never.

It's funny. Allen Walker doesn't even exist, but his stubborn insistence on being Allen Walker is Link's best hope. If it's possible for a man to remain who he knows himself to be, even in the face of something like The 14th, then maybe there's hope for Tewaku, if Link can be enough to remind her of who she is.

It all started so simply. The Church gave them a place to rest during the day, then a place to sleep that wasn't the orphanage or the _Armenarbeitshaus_. It gave them bread and hot milk. It gave them a home, a purpose, a reason to be grateful, a reason to keep living. Giving the Church his loyalty in return seemed like a reasonable recompense. He had no idea that along with his loyalty, he would be asked to sacrifice his heart.

The 14th pulls at him, but something in him interprets that pull in the soft, light voice of Tewaku when she called out to him "Cold! Cold! Come on, Howard, you're not even close! Cold! Oh, warm now! Warmer! Warmer!" two orphans hiding a stick from each other in the church cemetery on a winter evening before they huddled in the shelter of the back doorway to sleep, Tewaku cuddled in her brother's arms with Link beside them, Kiredori and Tocusa on each shoulder, Goushi pressed close on their left, and like this they would make it through the night.


End file.
